


New Chains, Same Shackles

by PlacentaMilk



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Genji has had time to heal, Hanzo Shimada has Issues, Hanzo has not, M/M, They talk, what even is angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22387675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlacentaMilk/pseuds/PlacentaMilk
Summary: "You're happy here, Genji." He states. Not a question, because there's no doubt."You're not."
Relationships: Genji Shimada/Hanzo Shimada
Comments: 1
Kudos: 79





	New Chains, Same Shackles

When he opens his eyes against the bright tundra sun, he finds Genji sitting to the side of him, his face tilted up towards what little heat the sun gives this early in the morning. Genji had been silent climbing up, he was always silent, more than Hanzo could be. But still, Hanzo had felt his presence, knew he was there before opening his eyes.

It's been a year.

A year since he seeked out Overwatch. Because he had to know. Because if there was a chance his dead brother was alive and here, he had to follow.

"You know, meditating in the shrine is still a viable option," Genji comments offhand, aware of Hanzo's eyes on him.

"And isn't that what you should be doing?" Hanzo asks. He didn't seek peace of mind where others could easily find him, and he didn't want to disturb the peace Genji has found in his favorite place, so he didn't meditate in the shrine. He meditated here, on top of the mountain, away from the prying and curious eyes of Overwatch.

"The sun feels nice today."

It falls silent, and when Genji still does not open his eyes, Hanzo decides to follow suit. He closes his eyes again and tilts his face up, soaking in the sun to ward off the cold winds.

"What if I said I wanted you to join me, every morning?" Genji says suddenly, after a minute or so of silence.

Truthfully, Hanzo immediately opens his mouth to reject the idea, but then closes it again. He knows Genji is asking because the younger knows that if he doesn't, Hanzo will retain the small peace they've managed to find by staying 15 feet away at all times. Staying out of the general vicinity, even, if it can be helped.

"Do you?"

He knows Genji will say yes.

"Yes," Genji replies without hesitation, and now the eyes are on him. "What do you think of when you come up here?"

A strange question. A change of conversation. Hanzo's eyes open once more to meet Genji's, and he says "Nothing."

Truthfully, he thinks of too many things. Always circling the same topics, Genji, Overwatch. Genji. He thinks about leaving. He thinks about jumping off of the cliff side and into the murky, freezing waters below. Taking Genji's sword to his chest - except he doesn't deserve an honorable death. He thinks of how Overwatch would rather keep him and his dragons tied up on a leash, just like his father, than rather out there freely, able to be turned on them if he wished it. Just like his father.

He thinks no one in Overwatch, not even the pretty smiles and puppy-dog eyed McCree can be trusted. He thinks; well, neither can I. 

Thinks about how surely his very presence here must be detrimental to Genji's mental health. Thinks about leaving. Cliff. Sword. Blood, always his spilled. Never a single drop of Genji's, maybe everyone else's but never his, never again.

Hanzo would quicker kill himself than he would ever lay a hand on Genji again.

"That's a lie," Genji scoffs, but he's not mean about it. The corner of his lips curl into a half-smile, a smirk. "Tell me. Really, Anija."

As if Hanzo could tell him. As if Hanzo could be allowed to lean on his brother like he used to before. He was given the only gift he could ever want when he found out Genji was still alive, but nothing else. Nothing more. So Hanzo shakes his head, facing the sun again. "No. You wouldn't want to listen, and I won't burden you."

The sun doesn't warm him anymore. He sits in the snow, with the cold tundra wind blowing past him, and he feels cold. Hollow. Empty. He's always felt this way, especially after... but it hits him deeply in a way it hasn't in a year. Or two. Five.

He had learnt how to deal with his emotions the old fashioned way a long, long time ago. Push them down until they're so small that you don't feel anything. Suppress them until there's nothing left. Become empty. Void. 

Genji is there, though. Reaching out like he tries to, despite both of them knowing he shouldn't. Hanzo wonders why he's here sometimes. It should've been enough, to know that Genji was alive. That he was safe. Loved. He's everything that here and more, yet...

Yet when Hanzo had the option to either stay and become one of them, to actually be on their team and join their missions, or leave... he chose to stay. His reasoning that first month was that he wasn't sure. Everything could've been fake. For all he knew, the Genji that had welcomed him with open arms could've been a fake. A robot, an omnic. Somehow possessing Genji's voice, his spirit. But Hanzo knew the truth back then. No one could wield the green dragon like his Genji could - that was special to the younger Shimada, and him alone. 

The truth was... Hanzo couldn't leave. Not if he wanted to. Not with knowing that Genji was there. Right in front of him - well, twenty feet away in front of him.

Genji used to follow Hanzo to the ends of the Earth when they were kids. Hanzo does the same now. Anywhere Genji goes, Hanzo will follow. Whether it be to the ends of the Earth, the ends of the Universe, or the Void itself, even, Hanzo will be there. 

"You think too loud."

When Hanzo's eyes open, Genji is no longer sitting at his side, instead he's sitting in front of him.

"Tell me. I want to know."

Hanzo thinks that, no, Genji really doesn't. But he sighs lightly, eyes drifting from Genji's own, past his shoulders and out at the landscape. "You're happy here, Genji." He states. Not a question, because there's no doubt.

"You're not."

The raven-haired Shimada looks back at the other. It wasn't a question. A statement. "Whether I'm happy or not doesn't matter-" he starts, which is the wrong thing to say, apparently.

"The hell are you talking about? Of course it does." Genji cuts in, his eyebrows furrowing together.

"It doesn't. It's enough to just know that you're okay."

It should be enough, anyway. It has to be enough. It is enough. Genji looks at him openly, confused and sad. "Hanzo, you don't-"

This time, Hanzo is the one to cut him off. "You're happy here. You've found... family. I'm happy you have that. That you were able... to find peace." The words get caught at his throat as if he were speaking to Genji's shrine again. He's not back there. He refuses to be. "It's a well-known fact that I haven't. I wonder..." Hanzo stops himself, biting his tongue. He wants to spill. To say 'I wonder why I am here.' What he says instead is, "I wonder if sometimes I am detrimental to your health."

Genji scoffs, as if he can't believe what he's hearing. As if it's the most outstanding bullshit he's ever heard. "Are you joking?"

"I murdered you, Genji." Hanzo says quietly. They never talked about it. Specifically about that night, about what happened then, what happened before, why Hanzo did it. Only after. What happened after and nothing else. "I took away your life, and I will never be able to forgive myself for it. How you can say that you do, and how you can look at me, look for me daily astonishes me."

Genji is silent for an agonizing moment. "I had ten years to heal. To get used to my new life. My body. You're my brother."

"Do you really think I deserve that title still?"

Exasperated, the younger Shimada throws his hands in the air before surging forward to capture Hanzo's in his own. "Anija. Hanzo. I've thought about that night a lot, and I thought about the hell I went through afterwards. Recovering. Adjusting to being part omnic. A cyborg. You didn't take my life away from me, you gave me a new one."

Hanzo stares down at their clasped hands mutely.

"Do you remember how I used to be? How I would stay out of that castle as long as I could? Partying, doing whatever the hell I wanted for as long as I wanted because I didn't want to be in that castle?"

This gets a chuckle out of the other, but it's small. "How could I forget what a nuisance you used to be?" Hanzo jokes. "I would stay up all night to make sure you were fine when you got home."

"You loved me, and it was the only thing I wanted out of the clan. I didn't want the empire, I didn't want the burden of carrying the other clans, I didn't want to be a part of it. You knew that ever since we were children. That was always your responsibility, not mine, and we both knew the Elders would never let me go. You saved me."

Hanzo's hands slip out of his own and he sits back. His face twists in disbelief, in anger, in bitterness. Sadness. "I killed you," he hisses, standing up. Genji rises with him, shaking his head.

"You got me out of there. You gave me a new life."

"It wasn't my idea to murder you!" Hanzo yells, now, unable to process what he's hearing. "I sat for months on the decision, I couldn't-"

"You did." Genji interrupts evenly, his gaze meeting Hanzo's unflinchingly. He tilts his head to the side, finally asking the question that's been on his mind for years. 

"What made you do it?"

"...If I didn't do it, Watanabe would've done it." The raven says, suddenly quiet again. "I couldn't let him. I would've killed him too."

"And that's why," Genji pauses to step forward again, his hands landing on Hanzo's shoulders, "you saved me. In a viciously cruel way, but it was the only way. If Watanabe did it, I wouldn't be alive."

Hanzo doesn't respond, and doesn't look back at Genji either. The weight of the past couple of years shows on his face, in the grooves and the wrinkles, in the shadows under his eyes. It takes Genji a moment to say it, because he's afraid of what will happen once he does, but eventually he opens his mouth to speak again. "If anything, I think I might be detrimental to you."

Hanzo shakes his head, but it's Genji's turn to speak. "Can't you see brother? I'm free."


End file.
